1809 was another trying year for the Spanish Patriots. The will to resist remained strong, but the Spanish leadership seemed unable to come up with a winning strategy.

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The spring and summer of 1810 saw Napoleon enjoying life as a newlywed. Bonaparte was happy, but there were ominous signs of trouble ahead. He himself would later admit the Empire was headed towards "the edge of the abyss."

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Napoleon's search for a new wife eventually led to Vienna, where the new Austrian Foreign Minister, Klemens von Metternich, was preparing to take Austria in a new direction on the world stage.

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We interview David Serero of the Festival Napoléon and get a special message from Will Clark of Grey History.

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News of the Abdications of Bayonne shook Spanish colonial societies to their foundations. Within a few years, the nations of South and Central America would be on the road to independence.

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We examine Spanish America on the eve of the Wars of Independence.

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Josephine was the great love of Napoleon's life, but in late 1809, he had their marriage annulled -- how had it come to this?

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We examine Napoleon's private life, with a special focus on the most important person in it: the charming and controversial Empress of the French, Josephine.

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In the summer of 1809, General Sir Arthur Wellesley led a small British army into Spain. While the war raged on, Napoleon was also picking a political fight with a powerful enemy: the Roman Catholic Church.

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Iberia, 1809: the Aragonese capital of Zaragoza was under siege once again. To the west, the French prepared another invasion of Portugal. Meanwhile, in London, the British leadership debated a renewed commitment in this theater of the war.

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